Re:_Does_Koenraad_Elst_Meet_Hock´s_Challenge?

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:

>
> --- "tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...>" If I were
> to hold on to the
> > hypothesis that loss of
> > laryngeals is caused by conquered substrate, I'd
> > have to claim that
> > the AfroAsiatic languages were spread by dispersion,
> > the IE ones by
> > conquest.
>
> *****GK:I think it all depends on circumstances
> doesn't it? Far be it for me to deny that IE were
> peaceful "internationalists". But the original "kurgan
> warrior onslaught" ought really to be put to rest
> permanently as an all-explaining theory. There is
> enough evidence available to suggest that the
> hypothetical adoption of IE by various "substrates"
> would have been the result of "imitation" and
> "adaptation" or "peaceful assimilation" rather than
> "conquest". Obviously there WERE conquests. But not
> everywhere and at all times.*****
>

Right, of course. All my conjecture would allow me to infer is the
existence of a substrate, not anything about the manner in which it
became one. And it's still a conjecture.

Torsten